Life Goes On by Tayell, Frank (large ebook reader txt) 📗

said. “We’ll see it all the time, but how will we know how a corpse died? Thus, we’re calculating a timeframe when anecdotal data will become irrefutable.”

“There’s no way we’ll get to New York,” Tess said. “After Panama, we’ll return to Dégrad des Cannes, and head back to Robben Island, and then home.”

“Home for you,” Leo said.

“Yes, fine, sure,” Tess said. “I want it to be clear that there is no way at all we’ll get to New York. But if we had a sample of that zombie, would you be able to prove they could die?”

“Why would we need to, when we have that video?” Avalon asked.

“I mean could you develop some kind of lab test that would produce graphs and charts that we could stick in a newspaper or describe on the radio news?” Tess said. “Something definitive.”

“Nothing can be definitive,” Avalon said.

“Leo?”

“Yes,” he said. “But that’s not what you want, and not why we want to get to that particular specimen. You saw the bodies in Inhambane and Cape Town, and in Colombia. Some would have been zoms which simply died.”

“Calling them zombies is bad enough,” Avalon said. “Please don’t abbreviate. It’s a short route from there to copying the crew and calling it compound-zom.”

“Go on, Leo,” Tess said.

“We can take samples,” Leo said, “but we don’t know what happened to the… to the subject before it died. An intact skull doesn’t preclude brain injury. Weeks of decay turn a diagnosis into a mere hypothesis. In Colombia, the nerve agent could have had an effect of some kind. But here, in New York, we have these three videos. The woman is running. She’s infected. She turns, and then the zombie dies, all within thirty minutes.”

“Only two minutes of which are on camera,” Tess said. “The rest is conjecture.”

“The videos are time-stamped,” Leo said.

“It wouldn’t stand up in court,” Tess said.

“But it would in the court of public opinion,” Avalon said.

“Fair dinkum,” Tess said. “But, by now, that corpse has been rotting in that doorway for months. Assuming New York wasn’t nuked or flooded, how reliable would any samples be?”

“Priceless,” Leo said.

“I concur,” Avalon said. “It is highly improbable we will find more video footage, or identify a similar subject from any of the footage we’ve gathered. Thus, the only way to find a similar test subject would be to infect people until we replicate that same effect.”

“We’re not doing that,” Tess said. “And we’re not going to New York. Assuming it hasn’t been destroyed. No, we’re going home.” She closed the laptop-lid and handed it back to Leo. “Where was home for you? Was it New York?”

“Vancouver,” Avalon said.

“For two months of the year if we were lucky,” Leo said. “We spent more time travelling than at home.”

“Vancouver was hit by a bomb,” Tess said. “I’m sorry for your loss, for all you’ve lost. But these videos will have to suffice. It’s a good theory, though. People will want to hear it. Maybe that’s better than proof.”

“That is never the case,” Avalon said.

“We’ve got to think of the future,” Tess said. “We came here following a lead given us by Sir Malcolm Baker. A lead that proved reliable. The cartel’s depot was blown up. Considering the size of that explosion, it must have been their central fuel store. For all we know, the lab could have been there. I don’t know if the sisters are still alive, but I don’t see them as a threat to the Pacific. As far I’m concerned, we came out here to find a lab, and we failed. You want to go on to New York, but it is a logistical impossibility. That conversation we had a week ago can be forgotten. When we get back, when you’re asked to make a weapon, what you do and say is entirely up to you.”

“Any weapon we make would be more potent than VX,” Leo said.

“I figured as much,” Tess said. “But it’s not my call. You told Oswald Owen you could make one. When we get back, he’ll ask you to manufacture it. You can say no, but that’ll come with consequences.”

“So would deploying a chemical weapon,” Leo said. “Oceanic radiation levels will continue to rise until they reach a new equilibrium. The aquatic population will boom this year, but crash next year to fifty percent of pre-outbreak levels. It could be as low as ten percent, and continue to drop. Entire eco-systems have already been destroyed, but we could be looking at the utter destruction of the marine environment. This won’t only impact our food stocks, but the oxygen cycle. Half the planet’s O2 comes from plankton, yes? The entire planet could suffocate.”

“That’s going to happen anyway, right?” Tess said. “So there’s nothing I can do about it. Nothing Canberra can do. What you do and say when we get back to Australia is your affair. Do we understand each other?”

“We do,” Leo said.

“Good.” She stood up. “Do you really think they might be dying?”

“Everything is, from the moment it’s born,” Avalon said.

“We’re positive,” Leo said.

“Maybe there’s hope, then,” Tess said.

A fist thumped into the door, which was thrown open by a sweating Zach.

“There you are,” Zach said. “You missed the plane!”

“What plane?” Tess asked.

Two minutes later she was on the bridge, looking at a still image of an aircraft.

“A twin-engine jet,” Tess said. “Is that the best picture we have?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Adams said. “Commander Tusitala thinks it’s a Cessna Citation with a range of around five thousand kilometres. It approached from the east, and was following the South American coast. It didn’t change course when it saw us, nor did it make contact. It must have seen the smoke in Colombia, and then it saw a warship. After which, it turned north.”